A Man of Service: An Interview with John Lewis

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MLK Day

By:

CNCS Staff

At age 17, Congressman John Lewis was so inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King that he wrote a letter to King asking to meet him. Dr. King wrote back and sent Lewis a round-trip Greyhound bus ticket to meet with him.

Lewis joined Dr. King and would go on to organize sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters, serve as an architect of and a keynote speaker at the historic March on Washington, and march with protestors across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL.

In 1986, Lewis was elected to Congress and has served as the U.S. Representative of Georgia's 5th Congressional District since then. In this video, Lewis remembers his first meeting with Dr. King and reminds us of the true meaning of MLK Day.

To learn more about the MLK Day of Service and how you can participate, visit the MLK Day website.